Shield of Faith

Well, good morning, everybody. It is great to be with you today, whether you're joining us here in person, and I wanna say it is especially great to be with Anneli Jocelyn today, who's celebrating her 21st birthday. Yay, Anneli! But I am glad that you are all here. If you're joining us on the live stream, it's great to have you with us as we continue our verse-by-verse study through the book of Ephesians in the Bible. And today we are on the shield of faith.

Now, if you've got your Bible or your Bible app, go ahead and open it up to Ephesians 6. That's gonna be the main passage that we're in today. And if you don't have a Bible, by the way, we'd love to give you one. You can pick a free Bible up at the information desk in the lobby after the service.

So every once in a while, I get the question, what do you actually do around here, Val? What is your job? Well, my job has a lot of lanes, but one of the lanes is that I'm the person who sets the preaching calendar up. Now, René decides what we're gonna study, the series we're gonna go through, and things like that. But based on what I know about the schedules, talking with Mark and René, I set the preaching calendar.

Now, I need to be honest with you. We are in church, after all, so I need to be honest with you. When I looked ahead and saw that we were gonna be doing this section on the armor of God, I thought to myself, okay, I am definitely not going to schedule myself in that series, because I did not want to accidentally get the shield of faith. So months ago, months ago, we set the schedule, and I was very secretly pleased that I had dodged the shield of faith, until four weeks ago, when our plans for this weekend fell through, and I was looking at the schedules, and I was thinking, oh, okay, I think I'm gonna have to preach that weekend.

And then an email came into my box from René that said, "Revised Ephesians schedule." And I thought, oh no. So I opened it and kinda looked at it with one eye, because it seemed better that way. And there it was, August 5th and 6th, Valerie, shield of faith. I was like, no, I tried so hard. I tried so hard to avoid this. But why? Why did I wanna dodge this passage? Because faith is hard, and I know faith can be hard. I personally like control, and if you don't know, control is the opposite of faith.

And I thought, I struggle with faith sometimes. I may not be the best person to take up this topic. And I also knew that if I was gonna be talking about faith that the heat was gonna get turned up on my faith, and that that was gonna make for a very interesting week. Now, I have to say that I am very glad now to be here with you today. Because first of all, I just like to be with you. And I like to talk about Jesus with you. And I like to study the Bible with you.

But I'm also glad to be here today, because I feel like as I have jumped into this passage, God has given me so much joy. Joy as I have studied the faithfulness of our God. So what I'm sharing with you today truly, truly comes as a fellow traveler on the journey of faith. And I am excited to do it. I'm excited to share with you what I believe God has been teaching me as I've studied this passage. So let's dive in.

Now I wanna remind you that this passage has been being written by the Apostle Paul from a Roman prison. He's in prison. A Roman guard is standing there, regaled, and all this armor we're talking about. And Paul is thinking, I can work with this. I can work with this. And so he takes this armor that's intended for violence, and he turns it completely on its head, and he says, this is how Jesus' followers use the armor. They don't use it for violence. They use it for peace. They use prayer. They use faith.

And I wanna read the whole armor of God passage so we can get everything in context, and then we'll settle in on verse 16, our passage for today. So Ephesians 6, grab your Bibles, we'll be starting in verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the preparation that comes from the gospel of peace. And here's our key verse for today. In addition to all this, all the armor pieces we've already studied, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

The shield of faith. As I was preparing, I got really fascinated by Roman shields. I thought, what was Paul seeing when he did this? And we know from history that the Romans had two primary shields that they used. They had a round shield that you often see in movies that was really mobile and easy to move around. And then they had a taller, wider shield that they also used. And the Greek word that Paul is using here for shield, thureas, is the root word for the word door. So he's referring to those taller, wider shields. They would be about two and a half feet wide, about five feet tall. You can see they're curved at the edges, and this would give you just additional protection.

And it would help to blunt the arrows that would come flying at you in war. And when they made these shields, they made them by pressing together layers and layers of wood, kind of like we do for plywood today. And then they would coat the front of the shield when they went into battle with these leather skins they had just soaked in water. And they put them on the front of the shield. Now why would they put leather skins of water on the front of the shield? Wouldn't make that heavier? Might that have something to do with the flaming arrows? Stand by, we will get to that.

But Paul is saying, you have a shield. You have a shield. This shield is ready to protect you and be your defense. You have a shield of faith. When you watch the news and you are looking at it and you are going, what in the wide world is going on right now? And you feel attacked. Paul is saying you have a shield, a shield of faith, faith that we believe and know that God is in control, that we have a God who will work all things together for good.

Maybe you got attacked by somebody, a friend, and that's happening a lot. Friendships are fracturing, and maybe they talked about you behind your back, or maybe they put you on blast on social media. You have a shield, a shield of faith, faith that you are not what that person says about you. You are who God says you are. Faith that God loves you.

When you do not know what to do, and I look in this room and I know a lot of stories. I know people dealing with illness, people dealing with financial chaos, and you just feel paralyzed and stuck. And you think, I don't know if I'm ever gonna feel joy again. I don't know if I'm ever going to have a good life that I wanna live again. You have a shield, a shield that says he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion, that God has a plan for you, that he will not give up on you. You have a shield, a shield of faith, he says.

So what's this faith? This is the hard part for some of us, 'cause it can feel squishy. We don't quite know what is faith. What does Paul mean when he's talking about faith? Well, I think probably most of us in this room understand that faith is more than feelings. Now, there certainly are emotions that are attached to our faith, but our faith is not based in the emotion of the moment. And we all have faith. You may say, well, I don't really have faith. I don't believe in God. I'm here to go to brunch with friends, but I don't really believe any of this. Okay, that's fine, but guess what? You have faith in something, because we all do.

And when Christians talk about faith, we are talking about something that we place in an utterly trustworthy and all-powerful God. Let me talk about it like this. Years ago, I went to Chicago, and while I was visiting there, I went to the Sears Tower, and I went way up to the 103rd floor, where you can look out and just get this panoramic view of Chicago. It's gorgeous, but this was not enough for the people to give you a view from the 103rd floor. The people in the Sears Tower installed this glass box that juts out from the building. It's like this four-foot glass box, and you can step out into that box, and you can see all the street below you, 103 stories.

Now, I loved being in the building and looking out at the gorgeous view, but there came a moment when I decided to step into the glass box. Those are my feet. Those are my feet standing on that glass box. Now, I'll tell you, I knew that that glass box had been designed by engineers who knew a lot more about buildings and things than I did. I had watched 20 people, I stood in line for this terror, mind you, I had watched 20 people go in and out of this glass box while I waited, but until I took the step into the glass box, it was just all knowledge. It was all theory.

That step of faith into that box was based on everything I knew about those engineers and that building safety, that that thing was gonna hold me up. And Paul is telling us that our faith, he's telling us take that step into the glass box. All those things you know about God, that you know about Jesus, we have to take that step into the glass box.

And in the Bible, we often see this step talked about in two ways. The first way we see it is saving faith. Saving faith, this is that moment that we come to where we say, I give up, I can't do this, I surrender, I'm a sinner, I cannot save myself, but I believe you can, God, like the thief on the cross who said, remember me. This is the type of faith Paul is referring to earlier in Ephesians 2:8–9, when he says, for it is by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Saving faith in the completely done work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

But in the Bible, we also see the call to grow in faith. And I think this is the type of faith that Paul is talking about in this passage. The Bible says the just will live by faith, to daily walk in faith, to believe that God has not only saved me, but that he is with me in the present, and that he will be who he says he is in scripture. That daily choice that says, I'm not gonna rely on me, I'm gonna use the shield of faith, I'm not gonna use the shield of Valerie, AKA the shield of control, I'm not going to take that up today, I'm going to choose to take the shield of faith, I'm not gonna put up the shield of addiction, I'm not gonna put up the shield of numbness today, I'm not gonna put up the shield of busyness today.

It's that daily choice to walk in faith with the shield of faith. And you know, it's interesting when it says, take up the shield of faith, implying that it might sometimes be down. Implying that we have a choice, a choice to take up the shield of faith. So how do we do this though? How do we practically take up the shield of faith? How do we prepare our shield for that inevitable time when the arrows will come? And they will come. It's normal, it's okay, they will come, but you can have the shield prepared and ready.

Well with the time we have remaining, I wanna give you five very practical, I'm just gonna be very practical about this today. I wanna give you five really practical things that I think you can do to prepare your shield. And the first one is this, soak yourselves in God's word. Soak yourself in God's word. Romans 10:17 says, so faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. The word of God, the Bible. Now anytime I am up here, I promise you, I'm probably gonna talk about this. Because I believe that soaking yourself in God's word is steps one, two, and three when it comes to strengthening your faith.

It reminds us of the power of our God when we soak ourselves in God's word. It reminds us of his promises to us. I love the way N.T. Wright puts it in his book, Small Faith, Great God. The way to faith is always down the road of an enlarged view of God. A view that is constantly checked and revised in light of the Bible. Without this, the God we worship shrinks into an idol formed by our own imagination. Faith in an idol is no faith worth having at all. You wanna enlarge your view of God? Soak yourself in God's word.

And for some of you, you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been hearing this since I was four, I get it. But I just, I don't know what to do. I've fallen out of the habit. It just feels like a routine. Or for some of you, maybe this is all new. And you're like, I don't know, this Bible seems fairly large. Like, how do I do this? Where do I start? I love what one of our worship pastors, Elizabeth, posted the other day. She was talking about how in her current season of life, which has toddlers running all around her, she has found the best way to soak in God's word is to listen to the Bible while she's getting ready in the morning.

Maybe that's you. Maybe for a while, you just need to listen to God's word every morning, soak in his word. There's a great app called, from Life Church, Life Church called the Bible app. And you can listen to the Bible. You can even have a British guy read it to you if you would prefer that. That just sounds awesome. But you can listen to the Bible, soak it in that way. You can get a verse texted to you through that app. You can sign up for our daily video devos and soak in God's word with us every morning. Whatever you do, just do it. Start small if you have to.

You may be in a season of life where you're like, all I got is I can do a verse maybe, Val. Maybe I can glance at my open Bible. But just start because I promise you this about God's word. God promises it will not return void in your life. It will not be a waste of time. If it is one minute, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, it will be of eternal value for you because this is God's word. Soak in it.

And then the second thing, very closely related to the first thing is to speak God's truth into your life. What you've soaked in in God's word, speak God's truth. Notice I did not say speak your truth. Speak God's truth into your life. Look at how Jesus did this when he was tempted, when the flaming arrows were coming at him. We see this recorded in Matthew 4. Satan came to tempt Jesus. And when those arrows were flying, Jesus used scripture. He spoke truth. It says it is written. And then he spoke truth while the arrows fly. It is written. And I'm telling you if that's what Jesus did, that's what we should do.

Here's one way that I do this in my life. You've heard René talk about writing Bible verses that he reads when he's struggling with anxiety. Well, I also have Bible verses that I've written down, but mine are about the truth of who God is 'cause sometimes I do struggle with faith. So here's my stack of cards that I keep next to a chair at my house. And I've written down all kinds of Bible verses on here. Things that I go through. When I feel overwhelmed, I read God is my refuge and my strength, a present help and trouble. That's a shield. That's a shield.

When you face temptation, you can read verses like this that say God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, and that will definitely be one of the arrows that comes. When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. That's a shield. That's a shield. Speak truth. When you are discouraged, you can quote truths like this, do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. And that vast army may be for you an illness. It may be for you a financial crisis. It may be for you a relationship crisis. Do not be discouraged because of this vast army for the battle is not yours but God's. That is a shield. That is a shield for you. That is the wood and the leather of the shield of faith for you. Speak God's truth to your heart.

And you know, again, I know you've heard this, probably unless this is your first day in church, I know you've heard this, but why is it still so hard? Why is it that sometimes this stack of cards might as well weigh two tons? Because I cannot lift it up. I cannot even begin to speak God's truth. Well, those seasons come. God knew those seasons would come. And that's why I think this third application is super important, that we need to third, surround ourselves with people of faith. Surround yourself with people of faith.

When you can't pick up the stack of cards, surround yourself with people of faith. The Apostle Paul says to the church in Rome in Romans 1, I long to see you so that I can tell you what to do. So that I can take an offering. Pastors love to do that. So that I can have a potluck. No, so that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. We need each other. Christianity is not a solo sport. If you look at this text in the original Greek language, it's plural, it's y'all take up the shield of faith. It's y'all do these things. We do make a personal decision to follow Jesus, but then it's we live out our faith in community.

Soaking in God's word, speaking God's truth, isn't just for us, it's for everybody in the community. You know, when the Romans went to battle and the battle got particularly intense, or one of the soldiers got wounded, they would go into this formation that they called the tortoise formation. And you can see here, they would take those shields and they would go above and they would go on the sides. Here's a modern recreation of what that might've looked like. And they would take those shields and they would be all protected. It was practically no way in. It was so strong when they did this that you could actually drive a horse and chariot on top of the shield while they were doing that. Isn't that amazing?

There may be, you know what, I'm just gonna say, there will be. There will be a time in your life when you cannot take up the shield of faith. There will be a time in your life where you may be flattened by despair, you may be flattened by a loss, you may be flattened by any number of things that happened to us in this broken world and you cannot take up the shield of faith. That's okay. We will take up our shield of faith and tortoise form around you. That's what we do when we surround ourselves with people of faith.

I tell you as I battled my own insecurities and fears this week about this sermon, I had people who were tortoise forming around me. They were praying for me and their faith hardened me. Their faith encouraged me so much. Get connected with people of faith. And again, I know this isn't rocket science, but it can be hard because here's another truth. Humans are an odd bunch sometimes. Get a room full of us together like this and you're like, I don't know that I wanna get connected with these people of faith. It can be hard. I know that. Sometimes it's hard because of our schedules. Sometimes it's hard because of personalities that get involved, but don't give up. Keep coming out to church. Keep walking through those doors. Keep trying a small group. Grab one of the prayer sheets. Connect with your church by praying for people. Keep staying to eat whatever food we're serving that weekend. Keep saying hi at the greeting. Get radical. Say goodbye even to somebody when the church service is over. But just start. Start and surround yourself with people of faith.

Now honestly, and I hesitated to say this because you're gonna think it's church propaganda, but it's the truth. Honestly, one of the best ways to connect and to surround yourself with people of faith is to serve. And that's number four. Stretch my faith by serving. Stretch my faith by serving. I am super passionate about this because as I look back on my life, I feel like this is one of the key ways that God has grown my faith. When you serve, you will be stretched. You may be stretched by the time commitment. You may be stretched because you'll be asked to do something you don't wanna do, like preach on the shield of faith maybe. But you will be stretched in some way. And that's okay.

Maybe you're feeling stagnant in your faith. Maybe you're feeling like, I walk through the doors, I do the things, because this is what I've always done, but I just am not feeling connected to God. Jump in and serve. Look at what James 2 says. "In the same way faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead." Put feet to your faith. Put life into your faith. Serve. And you know what's great? Serving not only stretches you, but serving as part of our tortoise formation that we do at church. When you serve someone, you're providing faith cover for them. When you serve on our kids or youth team, you are tortoise-forming around the families that come to TLC. When you welcome somebody into church, when you feed them food, when you give them sermon notes, you are encouraging them. Your presence is an encouragement.

You know what's a tremendous encouragement? It's just hearing y'all sing. There's people in this room who can't sing right now because of life. But when you hear the other voices, when you sing, when you go out on a limb no matter what your voice sounds like, and you sing those praises, you're strengthening someone else's faith and you're stretching yourself. So soak yourself in God's word. Speak God's truth into your life. Surround yourself with people of faith. Stretch your faith by serving. And fifth, and this might be the hardest, stay focused on Jesus, not the arrows. Eyes on Jesus, everybody.

And this is not natural or easy because here's the thing, fire is scary. Now I don't need to tell this to anybody who was here during the CZU fires. Fire is scary. And in the Apostle Paul's world, fire had been weaponized. And its ability to kill and destroy terrified cities, terrified people. When they would go to battle, they would use these arrows that they had the tip dipped in this tar-like substance. And they were lit on fire and they were flying through the sky. I mean, can you imagine seeing a sky full of flaming arrows coming at you? And I think this is the picture that's in Paul's head when he's writing this. He's thinking of one of the scariest things that the Ephesians might face.

But look, it doesn't tell us what these arrows are gonna be. Isn't that interesting? It just says there's gonna be flaming arrows. What are these arrows that come into our lives? Well, I think that honestly, Paul didn't define it because God knew in his mercy, we don't need that kind of chaos down here. And that we're all gonna face different kinds of arrows, frankly. We all face different kinds of despair. We all face different kinds of trials. We all face different kinds of troubles, but we all face them. There are some common things, and I put something in your notes there. If you turn to the inside of your notes, you'll see that I listed some of the common arrows that I think we all deal with, despair, temptation. And then I put some verses there that you can soak in. This could be the beginning of your soaking in God's word when you face fiery arrows.

But again, we're not gonna focus on the arrows. And I know that's hard because we can get, some Christians I've noticed get tempted to just stare at the arrows. It's like they're mesmerized by the fire flying through the sky. They're like, "Ooh, fire, pretty, scary." And they get so focused on the arrow, they wanna know exactly what is this arrow. And they're like looking it up like it's a plant species. And they look at the arrow and stare at it. That's like a fantastic example of the temptation species. And they are soaking in the arrow instead of God's word.

But on the opposite side of this, some of us are tempted to roam around saying, "Oh, for the love, fiery arrows, come on, people. There are no fiery arrows. It's just life, get over it. It's gonna be fine, la, la, la." Meanwhile, everything is on fire around us. What does the Bible say? What does Paul say in this passage? The reality is we have an enemy. Now, this is not a flesh and blood enemy. Remember what Paul said earlier in Ephesians 6. The enemy is not sitting in the room. The enemy is not people who disagree with you or think differently in you. But we do have an enemy that Paul calls the evil one. The Apostle Peter says that this evil one prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. We have an enemy who will fire every single arrow in his quiver to try to get to our destruction.

But we don't focus on the arrows. We focus on Jesus. We anchor our faith in Jesus. Why? Because we can't put out the arrow, people. We can't put out the fire. But do you notice that it says when you use the shield of faith, it will extinguish all, all the flaming arrows? That almost seems too good to be true. All the flaming arrows extinguish as you soak in God's word. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 reminds us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter. That just means he started it, he'll end it. The pioneer and the perfecter of our faith. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Choose to take up that shield of faith. Choose to find your refuge behind the shield of faith. To take your refuge in God, your savior. Allow the truth of who God is and who he promises he will be in his word to be your defense, to be your shield.

When you are facing sickness, when you are facing temptation, when you are facing despair, when you are facing doubt, let him be your shield. And the result of that is something we all want. Isaiah 26:3 says the result of that is you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you. Peace. Peace when the arrows are flying around you. Peace in the shadow of the shield of faith. Peace not because of our efforts, but peace because of what the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith, Jesus, did on the cross for us.

You know, fiery arrows don't have the final say. You may not feel like that today, but I'm here to tell you, fiery arrows do not have the final say. Jesus did and it's done. It's done. But until that day, until the day it's done, there's a great line in Old hymn. It says until the day when our faith becomes sight, and we won't need our shield anymore. Until that day, take up that shield of faith. Soak yourselves in God's word. Place your faith in our utterly trustworthy, all powerful God. Let's pray.

Father, we come to you today as people who need you. Every single last one of us, we need you. And Lord, it is my prayer that for the people, especially today, who feel flat on the ground, who feel like they cannot possibly take up the shield of faith, God, it's my prayer that they would feel as tortoise-forming around them. It's my prayer that there would be some way in which you would make yourself known and real to them today and that they would have hope.

God, for the people who are here today who maybe don't feel anything, and they haven't for a while, they just feel numb, God, it's my prayer that you will quicken their faith today, that you will enliven their faith. It's my prayer that they would be reminded of their first love with you and that they would be reminded to stay in the shadow of the shield of faith.

And Lord, for the person that's here today, and maybe they've never taken that first step of faith, they've never surrendered their lives to you. God, I pray that right now, they would do that, that they would surrender, that they would say, God, I give up. I cannot save myself, but I believe Jesus did in his finished work on the cross. Save me.

Lord, we are so grateful that you have not left us alone in this world. Not only do we have this community of faith, but you have given us the shield of faith. You've given us the promise of your presence with us, wherever we go. Lord, we thank you for that. Thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.